Constipation - Am I handling this OK?

My 6.5 month old has started some solids - a little bit of rice cereal in the mornings, then whatever I've made in the afternoons (he's tried applesauce, squash, sweet potatoes, and other smooshy stuff, usually only a few teaspoons worth) - I try really hard to make sure that solids don't impact his consumption of milk, and so far it hasn't.

Over the weekend he did get constipated - on Friday he had a fair amount of banana at the DCP (I think they're used to kids getting pushed onto real foods faster and are after me to bring more rice cereal, I've been resisting), and apples in the afternoon, so that plus his cereal I think is the culprit (over the weekend he only had a few bites of cereal on saturday, and some spinach and some squash).

I backed him off solids immediately and just nursed as much as possible last night, and sent him to DC with a much smaller amount of cereal and no "snack", just milk. Is that reasonable? Waiting to hear back from the doctor but if solids are the culprit, seems easing off and getting more fluids in if possible is the best thing. (should I increase what he gets for milk at DC? He gets 12 oz for about 6.5 hrs in their care, then 3-4 oz between him getting home with dad and me getting home several hours later)

Should I go ahead and steam up some prunes when I get home, or is that likely to swing us too far the other way?

Re: Constipation - Am I handling this OK?

Totally reasonable, since plenty of babies don't eat more than an occasional taste of solids until they are a year old. Don't let the DCP push you into giving your baby more solids, and definitely back off the banana, cereal, and apples (all potential causes for constipation).

ETA: most exclusively breastfed babies require about 1.5 oz of milk per hour, so it sounds like you're providmilk plenty of milk.

Re: Constipation - Am I handling this OK?

thanks Kiddo LOVES trying things and smooshing up foods, and I admit to not doing much research on the regularity front, and he mostly ends up eating stuff I eat a lot of (hence bananas and apples, heh). DCP is pretty good but I've also noticed they're quick to give "puffs" or rice krispies and stuff like that, which I don't really want him to have (it just doesn't seem like actual food)

The banana incident is interesting, at home with me he gets whatever I smoosh on my finger out of the banana I'm eating, maybe a spoonful total. DCP gave him nearly half a banana with his cereal on friday. Just worried if I back him off solids that I'm going to hear about how hungry he is.

Re: Constipation - Am I handling this OK?

Can you send things like pears and peaches to daycare instead of cereal and banana? All of the things that you listed are pretty constipating for my son (sweet potato was actually really bad for us too ). Nice ripe pears are pretty smooshable, and much better at keeping things moving. I think going really slowly with solids is a good idea, and switching to less constipating foods should help too.

Re: Constipation - Am I handling this OK?

I wasn't shy about telling daycare what I did and didn't want DS eating. We did BLS so I was also really clear that I didn't want them feeding him at all, just watching him closely while he ate what I packed. They didn't seem to think I was unreasonable at all.

If you want to keep offering solids some un-constipating foods would be pears, peaches and plums.

Re: Constipation - Am I handling this OK?

Sent some plum today (well, prunes that I'd steamed and made into a nice gooey stuff that I also spread on my toast this morning. haha) Hopefully will have time to swing out and get some fresh plums and some pear at the farm store this evening.

I did mark "no banana" on his sheet so that should be fine I hadn't looked much into the constipating food thing and mostly was just giving him stuff that was easy for him to eat that we had on hand. I feel like I've learned a lot the last few days.

And... Of course today my cooler got upended in the car and I lost almost an ounce out of each bottle too. yay. :/